Cedar Park at odds with Jonestown residents over lake property

Andra Lim

Saturday

Mar 29, 2014 at 12:01 AMSep 25, 2018 at 8:57 AM

A sliver of Lake Travis lies at the center of a dispute between a handful of Jonestown residents and Cedar Park officials.

Cedar Park wants to buy the property for the final part of a $28 million temporary water intake system, jointly owned with Leander, that would be activated when lake levels drop below a certain point. But Jonestown residents have refused so far to accept offers, saying the lakefront property they paid millions for would turn into an eyesore.

Now, Cedar Park could seize the rights to that property under a series of resolutions its City Council passed Thursday evening with little fanfare. State law allows one city to grab another’s land if it’s for "public use," though Cedar Park officials said they are still attempting to negotiate with property owners.

The same night, the Jonestown City Council asked its city staff to draft a resolution voicing "potential concerns about the location of the facility," interim City Administrator Kenneth Reneau said. Reneau said he didn’t know what concerns the draft might include.

Cedar Park and Jonestown are stitched together by RM 1431, which transitions from the strip malls and subdivisions of a large Austin suburb to the picturesque slopes and boat shops of a tiny Hill Country town.

"We understand the concerns of the people who don’t want this project in the lake behind their house," Cedar Park Assistant City Manager Sam Roberts said. "But we also have a responsibility to the over 115,000 people who rely on water from this source."

The water intake system will be needed as the lake level — now at 627 feet above mean sea level — recedes, possibly to 590 feet by the end of 2015, Roberts said. The two existing pump stations near Lime Creek Road can only function when the level is above about 615 feet. So, Cedar Park and Leander planned for two additional pump stations and 12,000 more feet of pipeline.

Barb Misle, who lives in the Coplin’s Cove subdivision on the shores of Lake Travis, said she saved for years to buy a retirement home on Lake Travis. Now the lake is being sucked dry, homeowners said, by a water intake system that poses a safety hazard for swimmers and boaters.

"It’s our property; they have no business being on it," Misle said. "All because they want the cheapest route to water for their taxpayers, which will end up costing more in the end."

Misle also said the water intake system would violate zoning, since the land Cedar Park wants is slated for residential use. Roberts said Cedar Park would comply with land use regulations.

The patch of land that Cedar Park is eyeing in Jonestown, covering more than 150,000 square feet, lies just off the shore and is submerged by water. It is owned by the waterfront homeowners whose property lines extend into the middle of the lake.

Cedar Park and Leander are also in talks with the Lower Colorado River Authority to purchase additional land for the water intake system, Roberts said.

The Lake Travis intake system is only intended to operate until the Brushy Creek Regional Utility Authority finishes a $165 million permanent intake system, located elsewhere in the lake, that can operate until the lake level reaches 560 feet. The authority is beginning to design the system, General Manager Tom Gallier said, but it won’t be finished for at least several years.

This isn’t the first such rodeo for Cedar Park and Jonestown.

Several years ago, Cedar Park was aiming to procure land for the first phase of the temporary water intake system, which sits in a shallower part of the lake.

Property owners said they initially offered Cedar Park the land for free under a lease agreement, thinking the system would soon be dismantled. Instead, the city filed condemnation petitions in 2009.

"I thought it was an exceptionally good offer. But they just said, ‘No, we’ve got to take it,’" said Marlon Coplin, the developer of Coplin’s Cove. "So we spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on attorneys and let the court decide."

Commissioners in a county court at law determined Cedar Park had to pay property owners sums ranging from $92,500 to $564,000, court records show. Cedar Park balked at those numbers, property owners said, so they entered into agreements to lease the property for thousands of dollars each year in 2011.

The land Cedar Park is now negotiating includes some of the property under lease agreements. Roberts said he didn’t know how much overlap there is.

Roberts said Friday he couldn’t recall the specifics of past negotiations.

Cedar Park has spoken with the Jonestown Water Supply Corporation about selling it water from the intake system, Roberts said.

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